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Not sure how else to describe it; it reminds me of the noise that our Cavalier developed immediately after installing budget-friendly Monroe QuickStruts. Guessing on that car the shocky units of the originals were better, but it was awfully convenient not having to source strut-mount nonsense...

Class 1/2? :D

I just noticed a funny suspension sound too. It reminds me of the plungery sound I noticed after swapping the front struts on my wife's '03 Cavalier for budget-friendly Monroe QuickStruts. I haven't been able to find anything actually wrong with the Cavalier's suspension, so it's got to be the...

That looks nice! Am I correct in thinking that the base of the rack feet bolt to the stock mounting points, and the rest of the rail is removable just by unlocking it with a key?

Bummer; hope it wasn't too bad! I got smacked by a GMC Continental Shelf a few months back, but we were going slow enough only the bumper cover was damaged. Managing for a while with one car too few is a slight pain in the neck, though.

If this is what you have in mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_profile#Advanced_Audio_Distribution_Profile_.28A2DP.29 then yes, my '12 Touring does that and it works fine. Sound quality is better from my area NPR station, but I don't recall the Bluetooth sounding substantially...

I spent a little time with the Five yesterday for really the first time since buying it in Jan. '12. Didn't do much, really - I located the central jacking points and rotated the tires, and cleaned the wheels while they were off, topped off the tires, swapped the fading dealer plate frame for...

Worked great, got my tires rotated pretty easily. My car doesn't actually have the "X" up front, but the subframe jacking location isn't as hard to reach as I'd initially imagined - and it turns out I can reach it with the jack I have! Pretty neat.

Anyone else think this pic looks like a 15" wheel might possibly fit? Also - FWIW - I just tonight realized that Dodge Intrepid 16x7s should be quite similar to the 16" Mazda wheels. Yards near me have used steelies starting at $23 - that's more my kind of price! EDIT: Forgot about...

Good info there, thanks! And once it's on jackstands it'll be quick work to more thoroughly familiarize myself with the undercar layout. I'll take the liberty of uploading jpegs of the two images from the PDF .... What is the 170mm the PDF refers to? That the car's structural members...

Whenever doing actual work on vehicles I've owned, I've often depended on being able to place a floor jack centrally under the front or rear of the car and lift the entire front or rear at once so as to be able to place jackstands conveniently and not have the car's frame sitting at weird...

^^ If both are -1 degree or +1 degree from spec, steering on-center feel is affected and you may encounter uneven wear such as cupping. I once left a car's alignment toed in so far that the outsides (but not the insides) of both front tires became badly worn from the scrubbing. If one is a...

Right bolt pattern, width and offset are close enough to stock, the wheel will probably work for you. These little imports have teeny little wheelwells, though - anyone know how much wiggle room there is to go wider or more inboard/outboard before you get rubbing?

Aw, come on, don't people want a base model with the bigger engine? Like 2.5L, Bluetooth, and that's it?

Agreed that one of the Five's weak points is the rigidity of option packages. Is the speaker thing you mention similar to the add-on Bluetooth doodad Mazda lists in their accessories catalog?

Very likely true, but my experience with Fords is that the factory manual is in several volumes at like $60 per volume (and a restocking fee if the manual is out of print and you have to order it from Helm and then find it's the wrong one), and no guarantee which volume you need for the repair...

Hm ... tools .... how about a Haynes manual? :D (apparently they're not yet doing one for the Five ....)

Oh, that. The Sirius trial was fun, but then we thought about how many CDs we could buy for the subscription price, especially as there are *maybe* 3-5 stations I would listen to. One of the sales managers at our dealer made the same observation when I asked him about USB for '12. I wonder...